Celebrating the 126th anniversary of Statue of Liberty
CHRISTIE’S NEW YORK TO OFFER
Andy Warhol (1928-1987)
Statue of Liberty silkscreen inks, spray enamel and graphite on canvas
77 3/4 x 81 in. (197.5 x 205.7 cm.) Painted in 1962.
Estimate on request
New York - On November 14, Christie‘s in New York will offer Andy Warhol‘s iconic Statue of Liberty, a
seminal work from Warhol's greatest and most powerful Pop Art series of the 1960s and one of the most
important pictures by the artist ever to come to auction. Appropriating a timeless icon of America and
democratic freedom as his own, the painting is a love letter from the fame-struck son of an immigrant
family to his beloved New York. Always pushing the boundaries of art, moreover, Andy Warhol‘s Statue
Liberty is a pioneering example of 3-D painting, the first of its kind. This museum quality work, estimated
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F O R I M M E D I A T E R E L E A S E
in excess of $35 million, is the only example of the 1962 series in which Warhol experimented with 3-D
techniques, still in private hands. The two other works in this group are in museums: Optical Car Crash is
in the collection of the Kunstmuseum in Basel, Switzerland and a smaller version of Statue of Liberty is in
the collection of the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh.
―Andy Warhol’s Statue of Liberty is one of his most important statements on America and on painting in
the 1960s. At once deeply personal and universal, Warhol’s Lady Liberty is a symbol of hope painted at a
time of crisis in America. It is a famous icon of the American dream, alongside Warhol’s most popular
American subjects such as the Coca-Cola bottle, the Campbell’s soup-cans, his Marilyns and Elvis,‖ said
Brett Gorvy, Chairman and International Head of Post-War and Contemporary Art.
Statue of Liberty stands firmly as the launch pad for one of the artist‘s most important series from the
1960s—the Death and Disaster paintings. Painted in 1962 at the height of the Cold War and the Civil
Rights Movement, and in a city under the real threat of nuclear obliteration, Warhol chose to paint his
Statue of Liberty as the prelude to his Death and Disaster series, in which he coolly examined the dark
underbelly of the American dream. Screened over and over again on the same canvas, in blood red and
corrosive green, Warhol‘s multiple images of the Statue of Liberty stand as a proud and ironic
counterpoint to the car-crashes, suicides, race riots, electric chairs, atom bombs and dead celebrities from
this greatest period of his career. Presented in sequence like near-identical stills from a movie, or rows of
souvenirs on a dime-store shelf, the Statue of Liberty is here as much a mass-produced commodity of
today‘s culture as a can of soup.
Andy Warhol‘s development as an artist was indelibly linked with New York ever since he arrived in the
city in 1949. The proliferation of imagery that Warhol found in New York City fired his imagination and led
him to develop a unique visual style that managed to topple Abstract Expressionism as the city‘s dominant
language of artistic expression. Pop became Warhol‘s raison-d’être. An insatiable consumer of popular
culture, Warhol took the objects he saw around him and turned them into high art, and from his earliest
days as a professional artist, he captured the explosion in modern American culture that would dominate
the world. The Statue of Liberty is perhaps one of the most recognizable objects in the world, still revered
as the ultimate symbol of democracy and freedom.
Along with Optical Car Crash, 1962, now in the collection of the Kunstmuseum in Basel, Switzerland,
Statue of Liberty belongs to a unique group of pictures in which Warhol pioneered the realm of 3–D
painting. He appropriated the image of Lady Liberty from a post-card, first screening it in turquoise,
Warhol layered these impressions with the same silkscreen in red, deliberately misaligning each register
slightly. The effect through 3-D glasses literally brings a new and magical dimension to Warhol‘s art, as
well as a gritty and grainy realism to his depiction of the Statue.
―Warhol loved to stretch the boundaries between high art and lowbrow taste. Since the early 1950s, 3–D
effects had been popular in comic books and in drive-in horror movies, exemplified by films like Vincent
Price’s 1953 House of Wax or Warhol’s own 3-D adult production of Frankenstein in the early 1970s. Just
as today, with the massive resurgence of interest in 3-D through films like ‘Avatar’ and new television
technology, 3–D has always been at the forefront of the modern age,‖ says Brett Gorvy. While no doubt
relishing the camp, B-movie status of 3–D in the 1960s, Warhol recognized the revolutionary nature of
this visual language in art, especially when at that time, many artists – be it Jasper Johns or the Color
Field painters - were still exploring the two-dimensional reality of the picture plane in their work.
To celebrate Warhol‘s visionary use of 3-D, Christie‘s will include 3-D glasses and a special 3-D section in
the Evening sale catalogue.
The Statue of Liberty - A Gift from France
The graceful figure of the Statue of Liberty was destined to become an iconic symbol of freedom ever
since the idea was first conceived at a dinner party held in Paris in 1865 at the home of the prominent
French political intellectual, Édouard de Laboulaye. Laboulaye had a long standing animosity towards the
French ruling elite and had looked to the United States as an example of the kind of democracy he
yearned for. Also present at the dinner was Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi, an ambitious young sculptor who
was an idealist by nature and a Republican by political conviction. Bartholdi persuaded Laboulaye that he
should design the Statue and soon produced a proposal that was based on an amalgamation of the fabled
figures of ‗Marianne‘, ‗Britannia‘ and the embodiment of Liberty that had already appeared on American
coins and medals. He made a number of preliminary models varying in size and scale but all carrying a
symbolic torch that would become the pinnacle of the final design.
Construction of the Statue‘s head finally began in France in 1877 and the completed section was exhibited
with great excitement at the 1878 World‘s Fair in Paris. In 1880, Bartholdi secured the services of the
pioneering architect and engineer Alexander-Gustave Eiffel as his structural engineer and in 1885, after
contributions from nearly 200 towns and communities across France, the French navy vessel Isère left
France with over 200 crates containing the iron skeleton and copper skin of the Statue on their way to her
new home across the Atlantic. In October 2012, the Statue of Liberty is currently celebrating its 126th
birthday.
Notes to Editors Andy Warhol at Christie’s Christie‘s hold world auction record prices for Andy Warhol World Auction record for the artist Green car crash - Green burning car I, 1963 sold for $ 71,720,000 (New York, May 16, 2007) World Auction record for any Warhol portrait Self-portrait (in 4 parts), 1963-1964 sold for $ 38,442,500 (New York, May 11, 2011)
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Viewing
London 6-11 October 2012
Paris 17-19 October 2012
New York 10-13 November 2012
Sale
Christie‘s New York - 20 Rockefeller Plaza 14 November 2012
PRESS CONTACT: Capucine Milliot | +1 212 641 5078 | [email protected] About Christie’s Christie’s, the world's leading art business, had global auction and private sales in 2011 that totaled £3.6 billion/$5.7 bil lion. Christie’s is a name and place that speaks of extraordinary art, unparalleled service and expertise, as well as international glamour. Founded in 1766 by James Christie, Christie's has since conducted the greatest and most celebrated auctions through the centuries providing a popular showcase for the unique and the beautiful. Christie’s offers over 450 auctions annually in over 80 categories, including all areas of fine and decorative arts, jewellery, photographs, collectibles, wine, and more. Prices range from $200 to over $100 million. Christie's also has a long and successful history conducting private sales for its clients in all categories, with emphasis on Post-War and Contemporary, Impressionist and Modern, Old Masters and Jewellery. Private sales totaled £502 million / $808.6m in 2011, an increase of 44% on the previous year. Christie’s has a global presence with 53 offices in 32 countries and 10 salerooms
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